Well, Britain's history on Europe can lead one to think that their main goal is to weaken the EU and make it as powerless as possible - or, for the smarter types, to make it powerful only in ways that fit with their priorities (ie those of the City and Washington).

So their loud and extensive campaign to grab one of the two new jobs had to be seen with suspicion; and yes, given their history, there was no particular reason to let them have any of these two jobs, which symbolise, to some extent, what the EU is about.

Looking at the particulars, it was obviously more important to avoid Blair (yeehaaah!), there is the side angle of the internal market commissioner, and the fact that Ashton does not seem an objectionable pick per se. But it's still something of a bitter pill to have a Brit in one of these two jobs, yes.

In the long run, we're all dead. John Maynard Keynes